Letters in a Lunch Box

During her college years, Mahtab Narsimhan would take a 10 am Churchgate (fast) train every day. In the rush hour, when compartments were packed with more people than they could hold, she would watch the dabbawallas swiftly board the train with large metal carriers on their heads. “Back then, their presence in the congested trains would annoy me,” says Narsimhan. But today, she remains ever grateful to those daily train rides, for her latest book, The Tiffin (Hot Key Books; Rs 299), revolves around the popular Mumbai tiffin delivery service.

The beginning of the book reminds one of the acclaimed 2013 film, The Lunchbox. A fan of the Irrfan-starrer, Narsimhan says that while the movie was a love story, The Tiffin is about a boy, who longs to belong. Only one in 600,000 tiffins is misplaced and, quite predictably, the young woman’s is the one. The misplaced tiffin changes the life of young Kunal, who then seeks the help of dabbawallas to find his family.

“I wanted to write a book about how people not related by blood sometimes forge strong relationships. Mumbai dabbawallas, with their strong sense of community, were the perfect fit,” says Canada-based Narsimhan who made her debut as an author with The Tara Trilogy in 2004. She started work on The Tiffin in 2012 with research on the dabbawallas’ system of distribution that relies on codes.

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The story is set in 1985 Mumbai and explores the cityscape through elements such as mouthwatering mutton cutlets and chai at Irani cafes, bustling chawls and local trains. The book also mentions Mumbaikars’ practise of leaving notes in the dabbas for their  loved ones.

“In those times, making a phone call was expensive,” she says, “So it was interesting to follow the story of Kunal, whose life changes because of one misplaced tiffin. And he attempts to reclaim it, joined by the dabbawallas of Mumbai, doing what they  do best.”